


throw fairy dust at me

by zxrysky



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, First Meetings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 16:55:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7765828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zxrysky/pseuds/zxrysky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Are you going to do the telepathic thing?" Lance asks, standing up and dusting stray hairs off his shirt. "Where you get into my mind which, cough, is my private space?"</p><p>Blue opens an eye. "Yes."</p><p>Okay, Lance isn't going to argue with that. If he were a lazy cat, he'd probably do the same. But for now, he's going to go check out some clubs, make some friends, maybe hang out with some cute girls, and Lance is a Man with A Plan. </p><p>He's going to enjoy himself.</p><p>-=-</p><p>Lance is enrolled into Altean Castle. It's filled with magic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	throw fairy dust at me

His family uses the old magic. The magic imbued in knots, the magic quietly buzzing in the air, the magic in yellowed pages in thick books filled with dust. It exists in the floating pots and pans, food cooking without the presence of fire, clothes ironed and ready by themselves, runes circling around the house for luck and fortune, the pens never running out of ink, the food never expiring, the braids in their hair, the way everything they need is by their side. They use magic like it's breathing.

Lance learns how to tie knots before he learns how to walk.

-=-

He is the third son, the fifth child. Two older brothers, two older sisters. They all use magic, but none of them have been to a legitimate magical school.

 _No need_ , his mother tells them with a toss of her head, a swish of her hair. The food cooks in a pan floating near her head, and a pinch of oregano floats from the container on the kitchen top to toss itself into the pan. _You learn enough magic at home. What more do you need?_

But children are curious, insatiable, and they venture onto their own paths, devouring everything they can read. His oldest brother decides to dabble in mathematical magic, in how arithmancy affects spells and power levels, on how the height of a full moon on a winter solstice will provide a power boost, on calculating how much power a certain spell drains someone.

His oldest sister has never really let go of her teen years where she pours over books and cries at the stories written in them, so she plays with words. A wordsmith, working with his uncle, creating spells and books to fuel her desire to create, to help people who are struggling with reading. Words are letters, and letters are orders. Her words have magic in them, and writers put a bit of their soul into books. Her soul is quiet, calming, and it makes reading a lot easier, supposedly. His oldest brother swears by the mathematical books she writes for him.

His older brother is charismatic, and he uses it to his advantage. His road is similar to his oldest sister's, but his involves the spoken word, not the written word. He speaks, and a strange silence falls over the crowd. He is a peacemaker, a third party, someone to control an unruly crowd and convince them to listen. He wants to go into law enforcement, he confides to Lance. Prevent unnecessary violence.

His older sister is a necromancer. And that says enough.

But Lance's magic is unpredictable. Someday it cultivates the plants growing in the garden, like his aunt's magic; someday it powers up all the machines in the house without them being plugged in, like his father's; someday it puts a hole in the back of his cupboard - multiple holes, until the back of his cupboard looks like a patchwork wall with how often his uncle tries to fix it.

Lance's magic can't be categorized.

"You're like your abuelita," his mother tells him, dusting off her hands and wiping them on her apron. Her magic is homemaking, like her brother's, and it's warm and fuzzy, fills Lance up with bright sunshine. "You abuelita's magic couldn't be placed either."

"So what now?" Lance asks, sitting on the chair at the dining table and swinging his legs, too short to reach the ground. "What do I do?"

His mother levels a look at him, looks him up and down, and shrugs. "We send you to magic school."

-=-

Before magic school starts - magic school only starts when Lance is fifteen, for some reason he can't comprehend, and his oldest brother rubs his shoulders in understanding because he can't comprehend the current question he's trying to solve - Lance goes on a trip. It's a trip everyone in his family has gone on, apparently. It's a trip to find yourself and reaffirm your magic type.

Lance has to sit in the forest at the back of the house and wait for a week. Somehow, something will happen to signify his magic type. His oldest brother snuck a mathematics book in and spent the whole week doing it. The pages just kept going on and on. His oldest sister started writing in thin air, words curling in green script like smoke. His older brother started to preach to the wildlife, coaxing them to dance in the moonlight. His older sister woke up one morning and there were dead wildlife in front of her, reanimated to the point of life-like, twitching their noses and waiting to see what she would do. You're not supposed to consciously use magic. It should just happen.

Lance sits in the magic forest and waits. No one knows where the forest came from, only that it's been there since they can remember. It was there when his mother was a child. It was there when his grandmother was a child. His father had looked amused when he married into the family, according to his mother, but as tradition dictated, he too spent a week in the forest. He had walked out a changed man, his mother recalls, laughing.

He leans against a thick tree trunk, and watches as a vine curls around his finger.

-=-

On Day 6, a rabbit hops into his lap and stays there. Lance flails, hands whipping around as he tries to maintain his balance. The rabbit is leaning to a side and it's pretty heavy, surprisingly.

"Aren't you pretty," he murmurs quietly, under his breath, gently petting the rabbit. He's not sure if this is The Moment which will signify his magical type, not when it's been so hard to place for so long. He remembers setting his sister's head on fire by accident, just by saying it out loud.

Maybe he's to work with animals. In a zoo, making sure they all stay in line and behave. That makes sense, with the rabbit quietly preening under his touch.

"Good rabbit," he says decisively, and there's a quiet rolling purr from the bushes behind him.

Lance stiffens, and slowly turns around, hands reaching into his lap to hold the rabbit. The purr escalates into a low growl, and Lance stands shakily, leaning against the tree trunk for support.

"We might need to run, buddy," he whispers to the rabbit, eyes wide and trained on the bushes.

When a large black panther jumps out, teeth glinting in the sunlight and claws looking like they could rip him apart, Lance screams and starts running. He knows that no one is coming for him though, because the ritual is sacred. No one can enter the forest. He's on his own.

"I'm too young to die," he yells at the rabbit, who's squirming in his grasp. "I can't forsake you too!" He screams when the rabbit tries to escape.

The rabbit overpowers him and hops out of his grasp, dashing away into the bushes, and Lance huffs as he races through the forest. "Oh yeah, just leave your friend here for the big bad to catch," he calls out, throwing a look behind him to check on the panther. "Okay, yeah still chasing me, bad idea, oh god just-"

He trips on a tree root - a _tree root_ , of all things, and he falls, tumbling along the grassy path and lands with the breath pushed out of him.

The black panther pounces and lands on top of him, front paws at either side of his head and those claws look _deadly_ , yeah, okay, maybe his sister is going to have to reanimate him because Lance is certain he's not going to make it out alive.

He mutters a quick prayer for luck and protection, and squeezes his eyes shut. His breath is coming out in pants, hurried and shallow, and he feels, oh man, he feels something sharp against his neck.

"I can't believe you," someone says, and Lance's eyes fly open because no one's supposed to be in the forest but maybe someone is and he's going to be saved, oh thank god, please, someone get this big cat off him.

And no, it's just the panther, black and sleek looking and it's settling on his chest, a low purr rolling through it's body and it makes Lance's body shake.

Lance shuts his eyes again because he's certain he's dreaming.

"Are you really afraid of dying in here?" The panther asks, pressing down against Lance. He opens his eyes and nope, not a dream, not even a nightmare. "The forest won't let you die. It's tied to your family. No one will die in here during the ceremony."

"First time for everything," Lance forces out, breath coming out in slow gasps. The panther is like, crushing the _life_ out of him. "I'm pretty sure you're killing me right now."

"You _baby_ ," the panther says, and Lance swears he sees a smirk on its face. It sounds like his older sister, the necromancer, which is vaguely comforting. "I'm not going to kill you."

"That'd be great, yeah, I'd really appreciate it if you don't kill the Lance right now," he says in a rush, and he's fully aware he's rambling. "I'm going to magic school soon and I don't, really want to go there in pieces, you know? I don't know if I can die in pieces because it's R.I.P, like rest in peace, not rest in _pieces_ , so uh, don't claw me up into little bits of Lance."

"Magic school," the panther repeats, and its tail swishes in the air. "I'd like to go to magic school. See what all the fuss is about."

"Sure, I'm pretty sure you can get enrolled, uh, somehow," Lance replies. "Maybe they take in animals that talk."

"Oh no Lance," the panther says, and smiles - which shows off a whole row of teeth glinting in the sunlight. Its eyes are very, very blue, but Lance doesn't feel any fear, strangely. "I'm coming with you."

-=-

Lance stumbles out of the forest with a big black panther trailing behind him, and his mother smacks him with a towel and tells him to get into the shower because he stinks of mud and grass.

"Familiar," she says, nodding at the panther, and it preens, sitting on its haunches and licking its paw. "You chose my son?"

Lance's eyes grow wide because he's heard of a familiar, but he didn't expect the panther to be his familiar, not when the first time they met Lance was certain it was going to kill him. Until now, he thinks the panther is some weird spirit haunting him.

"I chose your son," the panther repeats, eyes shimmering, and Lance can _see_ the Witches' Ladder forming between them. He pokes hesitantly at it when it tries to wrap around his hips, but the panther slinks to him and rubs up against Lance and okay, Lance is weak, he lets the Witches' Ladder form because having a big cat purr against you is the cutest thing ever.

His siblings are very jealous.

-=-

Lance wakes up in the middle of the night and shouts in panic, "I still don't know my magic type!"

He's about to run down the hall and crawl into his mother's bed and have a panic attack when the panther lazily rises up and lies down across Lance's abdomen, effectively trapping him.

"Shut up," it yawns. "Isn't it obvious what you are?"

"No!"

The panther looks incredibly unimpressed. "Did you not read any of the books your mother has in her bookshelf?"

"They're mama's, we don't _touch_ them unless she says we can. We don't even _ask_."

It sighs and rolls over on it's side to face Lance. "I'm the familiar of the Guardian of Water. So you are?"

Lance stares at it. "No way," he says, blinking. "That's a lie. You're lying, there's a lying panther in my _bed_."

"I'm not lying, Lance. Go to sleep."

"Uh," Lance says, "What's your name? I can't keep calling you it. Can I?"

"Call me Blue," the panther says. "And please, sleep."

Lance falls quiet.

-=-

"Wait, if I'm the Guardian of Water, how on earth did I make the plants grow? Or get all the electronics to work? Or make stuff explode?"

"There is a thing called volatile magic, Lance, and when you're a child, with magic like yours, it's _very_ unpredictable. It latches on to the people you're close in proximity to, at first, before it settles. Now please, _sleep._ "

"Okay, okay, geez, so touchy."

"Lance, I will show you how sharp my claws are if you don't shut up."

"Okay! God! Sleeping now!"

-=-

Magic School goes by the name of Altean Castle apparently, which is the least imaginative name seeing as the school is based in Altea and is in the form of a castle. But it's huge, white marble coating the walls and blue fairy lights making the hallways glow, and it _floats_ , in the sky, which is incredible. Lance has to take a specially prepared bus to get there because it's so high. It blows his mind.

Seeing as it's in the sky, there are dorms in place, and yeah, Lance's a bit wary at staying away from home for so long, but the internet exists, and _magic_ exists, so it's not like he won't have any contact with his family at all. He's rooming with someone - not sure who, but the other guy has unpacked and everything looks normal enough so Lance probably isn't rooming with a weirdo - and he can't wait to start the semester.

But the best part about the whole thing is how Blue has to apparently go on the down low because familiars are a very hush hush thing, so Blue is a _kitten_.

Okay, not a kitten, Lance thinks regretfully as he nurses his clawed arm. He was only trying to coo at Blue! Blue is now officially a baby panther, the size of Lance's two palms and it's adorable. Blue can fit in Lance's carry on travel bag and Lance has drawn the zipper down such that Blue's head can pop out a little to see the happenings and goings of the school. Now, though, they're in his room and Lance is unpacking his bag to get settled in.

"What's your schedule like?" Blue asks, rolling on the bed to get to the time table placed at the end. It peers at it and blinks, like it's surprised.

"It's not too bad, I think," Lance says as he hangs his clothes up. "I feel like mama ran me through worse stuff."

"No, it's just…" Blue looks closer. "Seems very structured. Your curriculum overviews seem very structured, like they're giving you a square and telling you guys to fit into it. And there's no mention of the older magics either, like tying knots."

"Ah yeah, mama said people don't really do that anymore," Lance bounces on the bed, making Blue scrabble for purchase and dig his claws into Lance's jeans. "Hey, watch the seams, or you're going to spoil my jeans!"

"You'd deserve it," Blue replies, but nudges Lance's arm and rubs against it as some sort of weird cat apology. "They're just teaching generic charms and summoning of familiars. And majority of it is theory."

"It _is_ my first year," Lance points out. "And I've already got a familiar, so I can look forward to learning elemental magic, I guess!"

"And you get potions lessons," Blue continues, skimming through the rest of the introduction leaflet. "That's good, at least. Teach you the difference between and antidote and a poison." It pauses and looks thoughtful. "I could teach you that through trial and error."

"Trial and error!" Lance splutters. "I wasn't kidding the last time, okay, I'm _really_ too young to die."

"Semantics," Blue tells him, curling up on Lance's abdomen. "It's a pity they aren't teaching you charmspeak or wordsmithing, the two fields your siblings enjoy. Those are useful."

"This _is_ the first year," Lance reminds it. "And come on, school is meant to be fun! We're in our youth, we need to hang out, waste our time, go crazy for a bit!"

"Who told you school was meant to be fun?" Blue raises an eyebrow, but it's laughing a little. "Your mathematician brother?"

"Well okay, yes, it was him," he admits. "But come on, we should totally join a club and enjoy ourselves. It's orientation week! We should be going out to find the best club for Lance the Man!"

"You go yourself," Blue says, padding off Lance's abdomen and curling up on his pillow. "I'm sleeping."

"Are you going to do the telepathic thing?" Lance asks, standing up and dusting stray hairs off his shirt. "Where you get into my mind which, cough, is my private space?"

Blue opens an eye. "Yes."

Okay, Lance isn't going to argue with that. If he were a lazy cat, he'd probably do the same. But for now, he's going to go check out some clubs, make some friends, maybe hang out with some cute girls, and Lance is a Man with A Plan.

He's going to _enjoy_ himself.

-=-

Altean Castle has four years of education. The first one is an introduction, to get exposed to the vastness of magic, since many students don't actually get that opportunity at home; the second year is a more in-depth education of magic and its numerous possibilities, with a lot more application. The third and fourth year are where students split into their desired magic types or courses and focus in that area.

But for all four years, it is compulsory to join at least one club. Lance, personally, is open to the club with the best looking girls but the one he dropped by has a "girls-ONLY" rule which frankly, sucks.

He bumps into a guy at the cooking club, a club in which they use magic to further their baking or cooking experiments which either turn out really well or need to be handed over to the biowaste department to dispose of. The guy is kinda big, dressed in a bright yellow shirt with cargo pants and his smile is blinding.

"Hey man!" Lance says, because he wants some friends and this guy looks like he gives great hugs. "I'm Lance, new student!"

"I'm Hunk!" The guy replies, gripping his hand. "New student too! Want some?" He sticks out his other hand and there's a packet of chips in it, which hello, new best friend.

"Please," Lance says, and reaches for it, grabbing a few to stuff in his mouth. "Wait, Hunk? Like, room 1024 Hunk?"

"Room 1024 Lance?" Hunk asks, looking delighted, and they both shout at the same time. Hunk gives him a hug this time, and yeah, Lance was right, Hunk gives _great_ hugs. "I can't believe I met you already! You moved in okay?"

"Yeah, and uh, are you allergic to cats or anything?" Lance can't _believe_ he forgot to put that on his application form. _Needs a roommate not allergic to cat fur._ "I uh, may have one in the room. Blue is super good though, he won't do anything bad."

"Ah, like a pet from home?" Hunk grins. "Yeah, it's okay man, I'm not allergic to cat fur. Is he cute?"

"Oh man," Lance moans, gripping Hunk's arms. "So. Cute. But he'll scratch me if I tell him that, my _god_."

"Some cats do that," Hunk replies, nodding in understanding. "But it's all worth it because they're _cute_."

"War wound," Lance smirks, holding up his forearm. It's the arm Blue clawed a while ago, furious that Lance had dared call it cute.

" _Nice._ " Hunk says in approval, and they grin at each other. "You interested in this club?"

Lance looks at the cooking club again and, "Nah, not really. It just kinda reminded me of home so I stopped by. My mama makes lots of good stuff with magic."

"I just wanted to find out where the kitchen was and if I could make my own food," Hunk throws him a smile. "Want to try my cooking sometime?"

"Oh boy, you _cook_?" Lance clasps his hands in prayer. "Now I can safely tell my mama I won't die from eating instant noodles all day and eat too much MSG and have all my beautiful hair fall out."

Hunk laughs, bright and loud, and the two of them go around checking out the other clubs.

-=-

Orientation Day 1 ends with Hunk cooing over Blue and Blue, the absolute, filthiest traitor Lance has ever seen, just sits there and preens while Hunk feeds it cream cheese. _Lance_ wants cream cheese. He deserves cream cheese.

Hunk runs out, and Lance does not get any cream cheese.

Blue meows quietly, pressing up against Lance, and yeah, fine, this cat knows how to play him, he's not mad.

-=-

Orientation Day 2 starts bright and early with Lance waking up and Blue is on his face. He and Hunk go out for breakfast at one of the cafés on site and they're about to go to their Orientation Groups when Lance crashes into someone and falls on his ass.

Which, Lance would beg to clarify, only partially his fault. He was talking to Hunk, so his head was turned to face Hunk, who was by his side, so he was not looking forward, and therefore did not see the boy in front of him.

Still, Lance reflects as he blinks and takes Hunk's offered hand to stand up, it's a right pity he didn't see this boy. His hair is black, like Blue's fur, and it's in a mullet, which shouldn't work so well but it does and Lance could cry; his eyes are dark purple-grey (his sisters went through a color-swatching phase, don't blame him) and they shine _really_ bright in the light; he's slim, like Lance, just a little shorter probably, and his half jacket makes him look like an idiot but oh boy those fingerless gloves on his hands are _doing_ things to Lance.

"I think I'm in love," Lance whispers, half-sane, eyes trained on the pretty - Sweet Jesus, so fucking _pretty_ boy in front of him.

"You might wanna help him up if you're in love with him," Hunk notes absently.

And yeah, sound advice from Hunk, evidence numero duo as to why Hunk is best friend material, and Lance is reaching out to help the guy up when the guy straight up _glares_ at him - which still does things to Lance, not gonna lie - and stands up by himself. His books float up beside him, arranging themselves into a neat stack and wait patiently by his shoulder.

He strides by Lance, hands clenched into fists by his side and Lance watches dazedly as he strides off. That boy, no matter how terrible that attitude, is _very_ good looking.

"I'm in love," Lance repeats, and he thinks he catches the tips of the boy's ears turn red. "I'M IN LOVE!" He yells louder, desperate, hoping the boy will turn around and do something.

Something smacks him on the back of his head, and it's a book, a book that smacks him on the arm slightly before zooming off after the boy.

"Lance are you okay?" Hunk asks, a lopsided smile on his face. "You aren't really steady on your feet right now."

"Hunk," he says, turning around to grip him. "I'm in _love_. This is what youth is all about, this is what I was sent here for. Forget studying, this is _youth_. He's so _pretty_."

"We need to get some more coffee into you," Hunk says decisively, but he's still smiling, and Lance is very certain _he's_ still smiling, and they stumble into another café to get more coffee, laughing all the way.

-=-

Lance very nearly punches the air in delight when the pretty boy is in his Orientation Group. Hunk's in it too, which is reason number one to be delighted, but now the pretty boy is in it too and he can finally learn his name.

They do the normal introductions, with everyone saying their name and three things they like. Hunk's is food, cooking and reading, which Lance can empathise with.

"I'm Keith," the pretty boy says, and Lance automatically leans in to hear better. They're sitting in a circle and he's pretty far away from pretty boy Keith, sadly. "I like sparring, testing my magic and watching the stars in the sky."

Oh boy, Lance thinks, gripping Hunk and pretending to clutch at his chest. Keith is _cute_.

"I'm Lance," he announces when it's his turn, a smile on his face. "I like food, tying knots, and _Keith_."

He sends a wink over to the boy, even pulling out the finger guns, and everyone in the circle is laughing. Keith flushes a bright, bright red, the color of his jacket, and Lance can _feel_ a change in his hair.

He reaches up, doesn't feel anything different about the texture, and looks to Hunk. Hunk looks torn between devastated and bursting with laughter.

"Bro," he says, choking on laughter. "Your hair's bright red."

Lance freezes and reaches for anything with a reflection to check and yeah, he does, his hair is flaming red and Keith is smiling quietly to himself, the little shit, and Lance makes a dying noise.

He shrieks a little because it's his precious hair which sets everyone in the group off again, laughing and toppling over on one another, until it all dies down to hics and giggles. Lance tries all the spells he knows that can cancel out a spell like this - because come on, Lance and his siblings have pranked the hell out of each other, he knows pranking spells like the back of his hand - but it all amounts to nothing. Nada. Zilch.

"Okay man," he says, grinning widely. "I'm going to get you back for that."

"Try it," Keith throws at him, baring his teeth in a weirdly confrontational grin, and Lance's heart beats faster.

 _I can't believe you're already doing something stupid_ , a petulant voice floats into his mind.

_C'mon Blue, it's loooove._

_If anyone asks, I don't know you Lance._

He smirks, broad and wide, and Keith turns redder.

Oh man, if he's doing this, he's going to go in for the gold.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a review or drop by my [twitter](https://twitter.com/zxrysky) and [tumblr](http://zxrysky.tumblr.com/) .


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